The future is actually in the here and now

Speeding into the future, we either adapt to living in the fast lane, or fall by the wayside. It's a kind of bleak, Darwinian way of looking at things, but it has a measure of truth and nowhere more so than in China, which is bubbling with change.

In some ways the challenges of the future are with us now, and I have a theory that contemporary Chinese culture may be one of the best ways of coping with it. It is this same culture, however, that often bamboozles and occasionally frustrates visitors.

For instance, forming orderly lines. This rarely happens. Take the subway and you may think you are doing the right thing by standing to one side of the opening doors and waiting for everyone in the carriage to leave first, as directed, but you will be left standing as those waiting on the platform squeeze past.